Easter has come and gone for another year. Here in the UK we are heady with resurrection, and Lent is far behind us. But in areas of the world damaged by ongoing violence Good Friday continues.
We rejoice as Christians in the resurrection, but we can’t let its comfort blinker us to the suffering continually experienced by many of God’s children. The Christian Peacemaker Team in Palestine prepared a series of reflections for Lent following the Catholic stations of the cross. Here are the first four, still relevant though Lent is behind us for the moment. For the rest of the stations, please visit www.cpt.org:
First Station of the Cross—Jesus, accused by his enemies, stands condemned before Pilate
by Jean Fallon
As we recall Jesus standing before Pilate, who represents the Occupying Roman Forces, and the full weight of the Roman Empire, let us meditate on a scene happening in Hebron. Six Palestinian youths, between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, stand before the Israeli military, accused by a settler woman of breaking and entering her home.
Not knowing what would happen to them, they stood with their arms raised, hands on metal doors, legs apart, some of them still in the thin clothing they were wearing at home when soldiers came to arrest them. For close to four hours of standing in the cold, blindfolded and handcuffed, they endured a heckling crowd of settlers, before the police took them to the police station, questioned them, and finally released them after midnight. At a checkpoint on their way home, a soldier tore up one of their IDs.
Six Palestinian teenagers… whose actual crime was breaking through a fence into an open square near the settlers’ housing area to look for scrap metal. Even though their families gave witness on their behalf, the word of a settler condemned them. Two are now facing a hearing and the rest have their names on the Israeli police list of potential terrorists...
